Credit card where a 2nd card holder can view balance?

Fillerbunny79

I'm well aware that there's no such thing as a joint credit card in the UK. What we have here is a credit card held by one person with an additional card on the same account for another person. The main card holder has full liability for purchases made by both cards.

This is what I do with my husband at the moment, but it has become important to us that he is able to check the balance without having to ask me, and with the credit card we have, this isn't possible. 

Are there any credit cards that allow an additional card holder to log into online banking or use the app, so that we can both keep an eye on transactions and check the overall balance?

TIA!

MEM62

Unlikely.  The T's & C's of your account stipulate that you should not give anyone else access to it.  

Marchitiello

Are you asking if they would be able to see the total balance rather then only the transaction he has done? If so then the answer is definitely no. I cannot recall exactly but I believe Amex may allow the additional cardholder to monitor their transactions on the app whilst the main cardholder had a full view.

Fillerbunny79

Marchitiello said:

Are you asking if they would be able to see the total balance rather then only the transaction he has done? If so then the answer is definitely no. I cannot recall exactly but I believe Amex may allow the additional cardholder to monitor their transactions on the app whilst the main cardholder had a full view.

Yes, that's correct. A friend has the Amex setup but the additional card holder is only able to see their transactions, not the overall balance, which isn't what I'm after. Thank you!

Marchitiello

Again, what you are looking for is simply not possible. You need to understand that additional cardholders can be anyone, for instance a PA or a butler that needs to make purchases for the main cardholder and/or are allowed some expenses on it. You would not allow additional cardholder to see the full account transactions and/or balance. 

My wife is a secondary cardholder on two of my Amex and one of my Santander. As I said, I believe she can see her own transactions from her app whilst I can see all transactions from mine (with her transactions under-marked Mrs Marchitiello). On Santander I do not believe she is even allowed to access her transactions, or there must be something wrong with her set up as anytime she tried to apply for a Santander product with her own name, I get an email about… I have raised this as an informal complaint and never heard back so next time she tried, if it happens again, I will raise a formal complaint. 

Fillerbunny79

Yeah, it looks like Amex is the closest we get over here. It's frustrating. In the US, my credit card company lets you distinguish between an 'authorised user', which seems analagous to our additional card holders here, and an 'account manager' who has greater privileges. 

At least now I know and can figure out an alternative or workaround. Thanks for your help.

km1500

Just install the app on your husband's phone as well as yours - no one will care.

Brie

Not sure why people say it's not possible.  Might be better to say they haven't found a way.  

Now both OH & I have MBNA cards.  2 accounts with each of us "owning" one and the other one of us as an additional card holder on the other's account.  

MBNA used to have a system where I could log on and see all accounts I could use (so both mine and OH's) via the one log in.  They stopped this a few years back as they quite rightly recognised that there might be issues with one person being in charge of their partner's account (potential financial abuse etc).  So at X date I could no longer view anything to do with his account.  The problem is that my OH doesn't do finance.  Finds it highly distressing.  So I talked to MBNA and with their blessing I was able to set up online banking for my OH's account which I can fully access and manage on his behalf.  He still gets letters from them occasionally but statements are all online and I don't think he's looked at one in the last 10 years.  

I think what you need to do is approach the card company and ask that you husband have "third party access" to the online account.  Now potentially this may mean that he has all the same rights and options on the account that you do - see the balance, all transactions and do transfers etc etc.  If you are happy with this and they understand this is what you want then I see no reason why it would not be allowed.  It may mean that he is given the right to use your logon details which means he has your password for the account so perhaps you want this to be unique to stop him peeking at any other accounts you have.  (yes I know every single thing we log into should have a different unique password but in reality very few of us actually do that)